In silico discovery of a perilipin 1 inhibitor to be used as a new treatment for obesity

BACKGROUND: Obesity is a chronic non-communicable disease that affects a lot of people worldwide. Current management strategies for obesity include dietary management, physical exercises and pharmacological agents but sustenance of weight loss is still a problem. Perilipin 1 is a lipid droplet protein that is involved in lipolysis in adipose tissue. Perilipin 1 degradation or knockout is associated with leanness. AIM: The aim of this study is to use computational servers and software to predict the 3D structure of perilipin 1 and predict potential inhibitors to be used as treatment of obesity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The 3D structure of perilipin 1 was predicted by I-TASSER server. ZINC database was used to obtain potential inhibitors for perilipin 1. Docking of potential inhibitors was done using Molegro Virtual Docker. RESULTS: The predicted 3D structure of perilipin 1 had a high confidence score reflecting the reliability of the obtained structure. 4-Nitrophenyl 2,3,4-Tri-O-levulinoyl-alpha-D-mannopyranoside showed a high reliable docking score suggesting its potential action as perilipin 1 inhibitor. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that 4-Nitrophenyl 2,3,4-Tri-O-levulinoyl-alpha-D-mannopyranoside can be used as an inhibitor for perilipin 1 and a potential treatment for obesity.